Right On Track As the clock runs down, the Florida project chugs nicely toward completion

There are two ways to follow the progress of the University ofFlorida Golf Course renovation. You can stand on the freshlypoured concrete apron in front of the clubhouse and look out overthe 105-acre site, which is starting to look like a golf courseagain. Or you can go to the construction trailer, kick the mudoff your shoes and ask for a copy of the weekly progress report.This report, prepared by project manager Tom Weber of MacCurrachGolf, is a simple timeline with all the construction stageslisted in a column: drainage, irrigation, cart paths, grassing,etc. The projected schedule for each task is represented by awhite box on a gray background. As work proceeds, each box getsshaded in according to how much has been accomplished (e.g.,"cart path construction, 34%"). These shaded boxes, arranged onthe page, resemble strings of railroad cars in a freight yard.Hence the term "construction train"--used by golf architects andcontractors to describe the sequential progress of construction."The train is a series of cars," Weber says, looking at hisreport for the latest week. "I don't know if it has an engine,but from this schedule you can see where we are and where we'regoing."

The train is a curious metaphor, in that some cars reach theirdestination before others pull out of the station. Rototillingwas completed weeks ago, but the grassing of greens and fairwayshas not yet begun. Earthwork and the clearing of trees is 95%complete, but architect Bobby Weed still has four greens to shapebefore the drain-tile crew can finish. Weber ticks off moreitems: bunker construction, tee construction, cleanup and finishwork. "Eighteen loads of TifSport sod are coming next week," hesays, "so the plugging crew can start grassing the fairways. Thefirst planting of the greens is scheduled for two weeks from now,but I think I can beat that...." Clack, clackety-clack,clackety-clack....

On paper the train moves from left to right and from May toSeptember. On the ground it chugs from east to west, heading fora terminus in the northwest corner of the property. Thedirectionality is a function of infrastructure. No hole can begrassed until it can be watered, and the course's new pumpstation is in the southeast corner, next to the retention pond.It makes sense, then, to follow the irrigation contractor, whoinstalls and hooks up the pipes closest to the pump before movingon to the periphery. Another factor is the location of thestaging area, the place where vehicles are parked and materialsstored. To avoid damaging completed work, contractors like towork toward that point. Here, the staging area is in thenorthwest corner of the site, where a new maintenance shed isbeing built. At job's end Weber and his people will load up theirstuff and pull right out onto 34th Street.

"We try to stay a couple of seconds ahead of the constructiontrain," says Scot Sherman, associate designer for Weed GolfCourse Design. "We're running down the tracks in front of theengine, and we don't dare slow down or everything will stop."

There is a genuine urgency, in other words, about every designdecision, no matter how mundane. That's why Sherman keeps walkingbehind one of the four teeing grounds on the 1st hole, where aworker on a small tractor is grading the tee with the aid of aTopcon laser level. "Gosh, I hope this tee is square," Shermansays, making sure the two little pin flags centered in the frontand back of the tee line up with the white pole in the center ofthe fairway, 850 feet away. "You wouldn't think that rectangulartees would be that hard, but they're a real challenge."

What makes these tees tricky is the fact that they are staggeredfrom back to front, like 400-meter runners in the lanes of atrack. The forward tees must be rotated slightly; otherwise theywill point toward the right rough. "With free-form tees you don'thave this problem, but we want this course to look decidedlyold," Sherman says. He shakes his head. "I keep measuring it.I've got to believe it's right." Clackety-clack, clack....

A few hundred yards away Weed looks pensive as he watches workerslay sod on the banks of the 8th green. "Saddest day of the job,right here," he says. "I can't tinker any more." Up the hill, bythe clubhouse, backhoe operator Martin Rosas excavates a bunkerbehind the 9th green while summer intern Ben Taylor uses a shoveland a rake to shape a "knobbie" between the sand and the puttingsurface. "This is something you won't notice until you have toplay a little bunker shot to a pin on this side of the green,"Taylor says. "This will make it very difficult."

Weed, in the meantime, has driven a cart up to the 8th teecomplex, where he finds things not to his liking. From thechampionship tee he can't see the water hazard in front of thegreen; one of the intermediate tee boxes is either too high ortoo long. "You need to take that 3rd tee down as much aspossible," he tells Weber. "I don't like that at all." Clack,clackety-clack....

To see where the train is going, you have to step back and findhigh ground. On this hot summer afternoon the view from theclubhouse is dynamic. Collars of bermuda grass call attention togreens and tees that were indiscernible a week ago. White-sandbunkers stand out like stars in a night sky. The big earthmovingmachines are off to the east, their engines a faint rumble asthey shape the 11th and 15th holes. "The train is fully extendednow," says Sherman. "As we pull into the station, the engine willstop and all the cars will come in. We might be fully grassed ineight weeks."

In the old song you can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.There's no whistle on this train, but make no mistake--we'regetting somewhere.

Will the University of Florida Golf Course be a gem in 2002 and ajoke in 2012? In the next installment of This Old Course, thearchitects ask hard questions about oversized drivers,long-flying golf balls and the historic tension between coursedesigners and equipment makers.

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID WALBERG With the heavy lifting mostly done, it was time for finishing touches like laying out the tees.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID WALBERG The progress report produced by Weber (right) looks like a train. "From it," he says, "you can see where we are and where we're going."COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID WALBERG

Damage Control

When members of the University of Florida Golf Coursegreenkeeping crew arrived at work on Saturday morning, Aug. 11,they discovered that someone had left donuts--not the sugary kind,unfortunately, but the drive-in-a-circle kind favored by golfcourse vandals. Tire tracks marred the 9th green and the newputting clock (left), both of which had been sprigged withTifdwarf bermuda grass only two weeks before, and thoroughlychewed up a sand bunker.

"Kids having fun," says project manager Tom Weber, downplayingthe possibility that antigolf activists were behind the raid. "Itstinks, it gets people upset, but in this case the damage isminimal." So minimal, in fact, that light raking and a rerollingof the affected surfaces had everything back to normal in acouple of days. "We're now blocking the construction entrancewith a forklift when we leave at night," Weber says, "and we'llpark tractors in the clubhouse driveway so no one can drive onthe course." Still under consideration: giving the night-watchmanassignment to the alligator that roams the course after dark.